Parents are drawn to the method as a way of preserving the environment from the ravages of disposable diapers...

Fair point, but what's the environmental impact of dealing with the sanitary issues from having kids defecate all over the place? To be more specific, if this parenting method results in people getting sick more often, the environmental costs of combatting the sickness could be greater than the diapers?

It just reminds me of people buying those reusable shopping bags where more oil goes into their creation than several hundred plastic bags.

res_nihil:Do cloth diapers really save that much waste? I'd imagine that the water and other resources you'd need to wash them as often as you do would negate other environmental impacts, and unless you're composting or making fertalizer with the feces it still has to be disposed of somehow (or is it just flushed?).

At least you're flushing the dirty water away to a wastewater treatment facility, instead of bundling fecal material into a hermetically-sealed shiatbomb to be buried in a local landfill.

I would bet money the first item of clothing ever evented by cavemen was the diaper because they were smart enough to realize a small, mobile poop machine was a bad thing. Congratulations, hipsters, you failed at something so easy even a caveman could do it.

res_nihil:Do cloth diapers really save that much waste? I'd imagine that the water and other resources you'd need to wash them as often as you do would negate other environmental impacts, and unless you're composting or making fertalizer with the feces it still has to be disposed of somehow (or is it just flushed?).

Flush the solids, soak diapers in a bucket with detergent until you're ready to wash.

Also, "free elimination" is fine when you're a small village of 150 people and you don't care about hookworm, giardia, cholera and other fun parasites. You won't overload the local environment's ability to deal with the waste, unless there's a flood or something. Sure, it's not "natural" for children to wear diapers, but it's not "natural" for humans to live in communities of over 1000 people, if history is any indication. Any number greater than that and you might want to start giving some forethought about where and how you deal with waste.

Also, is there a vaccination available yet for the overwhelming desire to somehow be different and unique in a ridiculous fashion for no good reason whatsoever? How about this, you want to be different so bad, here comes the magical make-you-special genie *POOF* you've farking got scoliosis and 6 fingers on one hand, are you happy now?

You know what is also normal in China?

Bird flu.

The Indians dump their dead into the Ganges river, which they they also drink from, fish in, and dump their sewage into as well.

Just because it's normal somewhere else does not mean it's acceptable here.

kidsizedcoffin:namegoeshere: Did anyone mention yet that shiatting and pissing in the street is not eco-friendly?

I thought we figured that out when we stopped dumping our night pots out the window.

We what now?

Back before indoor plumbing was a big thing, when you might have 1 toilet for an entire floor of tenements, people had things called chamber pots. You do your buisness in the chamberpot and dump it out the window in the morning, rather then wander though your building half naked in the middle of the night looking for the toilet.

Where I live, landfill space is so far down the list of environmental concerns, and water resources is the #1 problem, so yeah, I'll go with the disposable diapers. In NY, I'd imagine there is plenty of water, and not so much landfill space, so I can see where cloth might be more eco-friendly there.

No diaper is not an option in civilized society. Sorry, we quit pissing wherever we wanted generations ago, and are better off for it.

If I went to a friend's house and the floor was covered in bowls and the kid was running around naked and the bowls were for kid crap, I'd have one less friend.

If I went to my car and there was a parent getting his kid to crap between my car and another, I would have some words to say, mainly to the police officer who responded to my call and the photos taken of the parent and kid who crapped between my car and someone else's. If dog owners have to clean up after their dogs, these parents should be doing the same exact thing.

God-is-a-Taco:Eh, I can respect the "reduce waste" part of it.I'm okay with it as long as it doesn't have any negative effects on the kid.

They can reduce it already by using cloth diapers, but apparently even washing them is too wasteful. If they've got the extra time to do this then good for them, but I think most people have to make a compromise somewhere.

Well, these are the same types of people who tether their children to leashes; basically treat their children like domesticated pets. So it's not really much of a surprise when they treat their child's bowel movements as nothing more than common dog droppings.

"But mostly, they say, they like feeling more in touch with their babies' most intimate functions. "

Lock up every one of those pedos.

"I have absolutely been at parties and witnessed people putting their baby over the sink," she said. One client took her baby and her bowl to a party, held her naked baby over the bowl, "and she just did it at this person's party in the corner, but obviously they were close friends," Ms. Shapiro said.

TheEdibleSnuggie:Well, these are the same types of people who tether their children to leashes; basically treat their children like domesticated pets. So it's not really much of a surprise when they treat their child's bowel movements as nothing more than common dog droppings.

So I guess we're going to be amending this sign shortly:

/hell, they might as well allow the Golden Retriever to raise the kid//couldn't do worse than the bio-parents

Among some US parents, it is not uncommon to let kids who are near the potty training age to play without bottoms with a potty nearby in the hope they may use it. Often kids from 2 or more families are involved and it helps if one of the kids preforms correctly and can serve as a roll model.

HairBolus:Among some US parents, it is not uncommon to let kids who are near the potty training age to play without bottoms with a potty nearby in the hope they may use it. Often kids from 2 or more families are involved and it helps if one of the kids preforms correctly and can serve as a roll model.

The article seems more of an every day thing as seen in China.

[www.chinese-traditions-and-culture.com image 208x242]

Okay, if they're near potty training age, that makes a certain amount of sense. But it still seems different, somehow, than dodging turd bowls in the kitchen.

BarkingUnicorn:"But mostly, they say, they like feeling more in touch with their babies' most intimate functions. "

Lock up every one of those pedos.

"I have absolutely been at parties and witnessed people putting their baby over the sink," she said. One client took her baby and her bowl to a party, held her naked baby over the bowl, "and she just did it at this person's party in the corner, but obviously they were close friends," Ms. Shapiro said.

GTFO of my house.

Speaking of, if a cop catches you letting your kid piss in public, are you going to get arrested and put on the sex offender registry?

BarkingUnicorn:"I have absolutely been at parties and witnessed people putting their baby over the sink," she said. One client took her baby and her bowl to a party, held her naked baby over the bowl, "and she just did it at this person's party in the corner, but obviously they were close friends," Ms. Shapiro said.

Saw something similar in Beijing once; a father holding his toddler by the hands and feet over a trashcan so the kid could pee. This was in a grocery store, btw.

As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, Chinese toddlers often wear pants with open crotches:

/saw similar things in the army//but those were adults peeing in the sink///farking country hicks

res_nihil:Do cloth diapers really save that much waste? I'd imagine that the water and other resources you'd need to wash them as often as you do would negate other environmental impacts, and unless you're composting or making fertalizer with the feces it still has to be disposed of somehow (or is it just flushed?).

We used cloth, and the waste savings was astounding, I think. Our neighbors had a kid the same age as our son, and they used disposables, and I know they threw away bags and bags of diapers. I threw the bag of diapers in the washer every other day. Our HE washer on the small load setting uses 15 gallons of water. We used a small amount of detergent, a little bit of electricity for the washer, a small amount of gas for heating the water; they air dried quickly overnight. The difference in cost with our utility bills was negligible, so it can't have been much. The cost was dramatically less using cloth, and I felt good about not throwing disposable diapers into the landfill. I think that even creating a little extra wastewater is probably better than the plastic garbage bags filled with plastic diapers filled with human waste.

buzzcut73:Where I live, landfill space is so far down the list of environmental concerns, and water resources is the #1 problem, so yeah, I'll go with the disposable diapers. In NY, I'd imagine there is plenty of water, and not so much landfill space, so I can see where cloth might be more eco-friendly there.

We are in the opposite situation; we live next to a river. No water problem here.